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Tuesday, September 6, 2016

South, then North by Northwest – An Autumn Road Trip

“To travel is to live”

- Hans Christian Andersen

It was time to travel. We’d had the travel itch for days and the suitcases had been in various stages of packing for a few weeks. We’ve been in one place – our Pacific Northwest home – since early May – the bags unpacked and stowed away - an unusually long time to be anywhere for us. It was definitely time to hit the road.[Sorry about the print size this week. Blogger and Surface don't mix well and makes travel n writing a bit frustrating when it refuses to enlarge the font size.}

A scene from Scottsdale, Arizona

We are kicking off the ‘travel season’ with a trip to the Southwestern United States – Arizona, Nevada and Utah. The road trip began following a flight to Phoenix, Arizona and a week spent living our ‘timeshare life’ there.

Not everyone thinks Arizona in August is the most desirable of destinations. It is still a summer sizzler and it is monsoon season in ‘The Valley of the Sun’ (as the greater Phoenix area is known). But we decided to take a chance on the weather.

An Arizona rabbit that thought he was hiding in the desert

Monsoon season in the desert has an average starting date of about July 7th and ends approximately September 13th. Our visit was near the end of the season which is determined by the number of days with an average dew point of 55 degrees or higher.

Storm clouds threatened but we avoided the Arizona monsoon

The monsoon is a thunderstorm that can sweep across the valley bringing heavy rain, wind and lightening. Flash floods often close roads. It can cause an event called a haboob, an enormous dust storm that can envelope the valley with dust and debris. An advisory handed out at check-in, warned that if a dust or rainstorm should happen while we were outside to move inside immediately. If we were on the road, we were to move well out of the way of traffic.

How green the desert can be in monsoon season in Arizona

We made it through the week without experiencing a monsoon or haboob, but were excited to leave the desert’s penetrating heat behind us. Daytime temperatures reached 107F and that made outside activities somewhat limited. However, a travel bonus of the desert this time of year is the lush green desert scape that surrounds instead of the dusty barren brown carpet.

Sand dunes in northeastern Arizona

Of course that isn’t to say there weren’t places along our route that reminded us of Egypt’s pyramids (like the dunes in the photo above) in Northeastern Arizona en route to Moab, Utah. Our ultimate Utah destination was Park City, a popular outdoors destination (home to the 2002 Winter Olympics Alpine and Snowboard events) southeast of Salt Lake City that sits high in the mountains - 7,500 feet elevation, in fact. In the winter skiers and snow enthusiasts flock here; mountain bikers and hikers the rest of the year.

Beginning in Phoenix, AZ then Moab, Park City, UT, and Las Vegas, NV

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”

- Lao Tzu

We’d not planned to visit Moab when we left the Northwest. Half way through our stay in Phoenix we read a newspaper article about Monument Valley and decided it was high time we see it. We cancelled our previously made hotel reservation, switched our route and headed northeast instead of northwest. And decided to spend two nights in Moab, just the other side of Monument Valley.

Mother Nature's canvass in northeastern Arizona

It took eight hours to drive from Phoenix to Moab; much of it on two-lane roads, punctuated with passing lanes every few miles. Elevations changed like a roller coaster, 4000 feet at Flagstaff, then 5,000 then 6,000 by the time we neared Sedona 30 minutes later. We passed or traveled through towns named Kayenta, Tuba City and Cameron, the latter which proudly proclaimed itself, “Home of the WWII Navajo Code Talkers”.

Afoot and light-hearted

I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me.

-- Walt Whitman

The desert landscape in Northern Arizona near the Utah border

The hours and miles passed quickly with such an ever-changing and stunning landscape. We congratulated ourselves on changing directions - and not being tied to an itinerary. After a summer of being bombarded with presidential politics on television, it has been good to be reminded of America's beauty, small towns and friendly people. While western Utah reminds us of Arizona’s vast flat lands, the monuments and mountains that make up eastern Utah are simply spectacular. We’ll take you on a pictorial tour of them next week.

Again, thanks for the time you’ve spent with us today. Wishes for healthy and safe travels to you and yours. We hope to see you back here next week - please bring a friend! Have you taken a road trip lately? Are you the type to change plans in the middle of a trip or must you follow a set itinerary? Tell us about it in the comments below or shoot us an email.

Oh Jan, I hear you on leaving room for spontaneity in even the best of plans. We have friends visiting us in Greece next spring who have sent us detailed plans of when they need to depart our house. . .next spring, mind you! I was tempted to write and say, tell us that again the end of March 2017! ;-)

As I wrote in this post after a summer of watching news reports on our presidential election and the name-calling and nastiness, I needed to be reminded of our country's beauty and all the wonderful people who live here! This trip did the trick!! xo

I would like to take a roadtrip through this part of the USA, although preferably in the fall when it's a tad cooler. I especially like your photo of the sand dunes. Thank you for mentioning the small font. I thought my eyes had seriously gone crazy since I've never had trouble reading your blog previously. I just zoomed in, and now I can see it all.

I still don't know what happened between Open Live Writer and Blogger but I've even tried enlarging the print since I got home and still can't get it to work! Seems to be fine (knock on wood for tomorrow's post). Thanks for sticking with it!

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TravelnWrite is

. . . about chasing a daydream. We are boomer ex pats from America's Pacific Northwest who decided to grow olives in Greece instead of old at home. Come join us as we discover the wonders of our new world. We are vagabonds at heart and keep our bags packed and ready to explore new lands! Come. . .join us on a journey through life.

The Scout and The Scribe

Joel's 'The Scout', who scouts out travel deals and destinations.
Jackie's 'The Scribe', who writes the tales and tips we've gathered on our travels.
Together, we are boomer-aged American's who've just become full-time ex pats living in the Greek Peloponnese. In addition to our travel adventures we now grow olives - we preferred that to simply 'growing old.'
We live in a small Greek village in an area calledThe Mani, on the Peloponnese peninsula.
We've lived a nomadic-lifestyle for two decades and finally decided to have a 'final fling' on this side of the Atlantic.
We chased our daydream and caught it. It can be done ~ and through this blog we hope to inspire you to go after yours whether real or from your armchair!
Have a question? Just want to chat? You can reach us at: travelnwrite@msn.com

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Travelnwrite is about Travelin' Right!

In our 35 years together, we've logged thousands of air and sea miles exploring far-away and close-to-home destinations. We quit our '8 - 5' jobs more than a dozen years ago. . .long before retirement age.

After living out of carry-on sized suitcases for more than a third of the year we decided to straddle the Atlantic and have part-time roots in two places (which makes for carry-on sized bags).

We split our at-home time between Washington State, in the United State's Pacific Northwest and our home on a hill above Agios Dimetrio, a small village in The Mani, a part of Greek's Peloponnese. (We decided to grow olives instead of old!)

Joel, The Scout, is the deal finder; deals which often prompt the destination.

Jackie, The Scribe and photographer, is a freelance writer/photographer whose articles are found in:

Print and On-Line Publications including:

* The Oregonian

* Seattle Times

* KirklandViews

* AAA's Puget Sound Journey

* RealFoodTraveler

Together we have created TravelnWrite, the online travel lifestyle magazine.

Our tales are designed to inspire those who travel independently and our tips on destinations and deals are meant to inform: how tocut costs and travel more for less. Those of you arm-chair travelers sit back and come along with us as we introduce you to interesting people and explore new places along the way.

Our trips are not freebies - we pay our way around the world. On rare occasion our travels are hosted and will be noted as such on the post about them. The opinions and observations, recommendations and reviews we write are purely our own.

Our unstructured, independent travel-style isn't for everyone. Nor is our approach to cost-cutting. Everyone has their own comfort level - both mentally and physically.

To reach us write: travelnwrite@msn.com. Better yet, leave a comment so that all readers can benefit from your tips and tales as well!